Wednesday, 15 March 2017

Ever since Irom
Sharmila as member of Peoples' Resurgence and Justice Alliance's (PRJA) lost
the 2017 assembly election with less than 100 votes, there has been continuous berating
of the voters of Manipur, more so by social and political activists. Some of
the comments are rather harsh such as:

1.“Manipuris are a shame. How could they dump
Sharmila. After her 16 years fast in solitary confinement all against AFSPA!!!”

According
to Financial Express of 12 March 2017 even Irom Sharmila has said the following
after the election result was out:

“But I am fed up with
politics after this result: I continued without even water for 16 year yet…
People need to be awakened. They let me down…The people let me down,” she said
in an emotionally choked voice.”

Photo Credit: Scroll

I wish to say here that while Irom Sharmila is
greatly respected and admired outside as well as in Manipur also, it would be
wrong to expect that respect for Irom Sharmila alone should convert immediately
into votes. Instead of being disheartened at the outcome, it would be important
to analyze the reasons for the same. As a student of social work, social science
and a political activist, some of the reasons that come to my mind for the
defeat of Irom Sharmila are listed below. It is not necessary that all the
reasons may be correct.

1.Till very recently,
Irom Sharmila herself had kept away from electoral politics and had believed in
the individual self as a weapon to fight oppression. Hers was a rather
individualistic means of a battle against repression by the State. Pitching
oneself as a weapon against the State and electoral politics are two different
kinds of politics, sometimes even contradictory. While one is against the State
and all it represents, the other is to be part of the State. The natures of
both are different. Therefore the work that goes into it is also different. People
probably could not accept Irom Sharmila’s quick and sudden change from herself
as a weapon fighting the State to electoral politics that involves the masses
to choose her as their representative for the formation of the State. It takes
time for people to accept the transition (if at all), leave alone support it.

2.It must be remembered
that Irom Sharmila was on fast and almost confined to a hospital for over fifteen
years’ with limited contact with her people until very recently. May be, people
wanted her first to recuperate, reflect, reconnect with the masses, and so on
before she moved on to forming a political party and head a state like Manipur.
That too, so soon after her extraordinarily and an equally exhausting fast. May
be, even her closest supporters through this grueling ordeal of a struggle
wanted time for recuperation and reflection.

3.Supporters of Irom
Sharmila probably put her on a high moral pedestal and viewed her as someone
who raised herself above the most basic human needs like food and therefore
above everything else - love, electoral politics and so on. May be, her
supporters felt that for a person of her stature, an icon, seeking votes is
getting off the high pedestal or a climb down. While fast is generally
considered selfless, in electoral politics, there is a clear give and take and party politics is often considered dirty.

4.Probably people
supported Irom Sharmila’s fast, but here she was seeking votes for her newly
formed party. May be, the people of Manipur were not so much in support of the hurriedly
formed party, its hurriedly assembled members and its candidates.

5.People till very
recently recognized Irom Sharmila for her fight against AFSPA. Her struggle was
issue based. A political party is much more than a single issue. Besides, Manipur
is grappling with many other serious issues apart from the presence of the
Indian army and AFSPA. There is the issue of economic blockade, the valley and
hills issue, developmental concerns, underground groups and so on. In this
backdrop, it takes time for a new party to reach out to the masses with its comprehensive
ideology. Probably PRJA could not articulate itself clearly on these issues or
did not have the time to reach out to the people effectively for being new.
This is particularly true for a State like Manipur with poor connectivity and
infrastructure.

6.Irom Sharmila is
known for her individual decisions. She sat on a fast although for a public
cause as well as withdrew it as per her personal decision and rightfully so.
But if one wishes to contest elections and want people’s support, large scale
consultations, collective decisions, participation of the people, especially
one’s primary supporters become essential. Besides, it has been reported in
papers that her core supporters who stood by her through her fast were not in favor of her forming a party and contesting elections. It is true that a world
renowned figure like Irom Sharmila would draw new supporters into her party. But
not taking on board long time political colleagues who are often seen as
dispensable may have also been a cause for the loss.

7.During elections,
people also see the ability of a party to win. Considering that PRJA had been
able to field only three candidates out of sixty assembly seats in Manipur, it
was clear that it was not going to be able to form the Government. Therefore people
may have consolidated their vote in favor of a party closer to their ideology
that was likely to form the Government in Manipur. The fact that PRJA could
field only three candidates itself is a subject for reflection.

8.While Irom Sharmila’s
fast is extraordinary, commendable and unique, people of Manipur too have been
fighting AFSPA in various ways. State violence and repression have brutally
affected the Manipuri society at large. Many of the Manipur homes have lost their
family member in the struggle, many youth have taken up arms, there have been over
1500 extra judicial killings and even rapes. The cost suffered by the people of
Manipur is wide spread and so is the struggle of the people. The scale of
suffering and that of the struggle are beyond an individual self. The rise of
Irom Sharmila has been a part of this broader struggle collectively waged by the
people of Manipur for several decades now with unimaginable costs. This is why
probably unlike us from outside the State, people of Manipur see Irom Sharmila
as a part of this wider people’s struggle and not someone different from many
of those who have fought and lost lives for the cause in anonymity. In this
backdrop, expecting something specific in exchange/return (votes here) for what
is perceived as a selfless struggle one has waged on behalf of the masses often
does not go down well with the people.

9.There are several in
Manipur who have a different ideology from that of Irom Sharmila. For example
there are many who do not believe in a non violent struggle against an extraordinarily
oppressive State and have taken up arms. The last I visited Manipur over a
decade ago; there were at least 18 underground groups as reported in newspapers.
There are others in Manipur who believe in non-violent mass struggle and
uprising and do not believe that an individual fast or electoral politics can
be a substitute to people’s empowerment and movement. Many among them would
probably agree with what senior journalist Kalpana Sharma wrote in the Hindu
while writing about Irom Sharmila- http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/columns/Kalpana_Sharma/i-am-sharmila/article4515503.ece

“In India, we elevate individuals and
forget the cause. We need heroes and heroines, more
so at a time of visual media. But in fixing on individuals, the issue, the
cause, the reason for protest sometimes
gets forgotten or under-played...”

Many
in the State of Manipur would feel that an individual fast may result into personification of a collective struggle.
Personification of a movement has its own disadvantages
as it has advantages. For example it is in
the interest of the perpetrators
of oppression to narrow down mass
resistance to a struggle of an individual.
This way, the struggle can be undermined; delegitimized and even crushed more easily. Another danger of personification
of a mass movement is that if and when the prominent figure changes course or priority or moves on to
other struggles/issues, the struggle
over the core issue sometimes receives
a setback.

Such
could be the sentiments of the people of Manipur since it is only a short time ago that an unprecedented and a high
profile fast has been withdrawn over a cause that
has been affecting the lives of most people in Manipur.

10.Many among the people who have rejected the main stream
political parties are trying various alternatives even in Manipur. Aam Admi
Party had contested in Manipur during the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and has a
state unit. Many of the non-Congress and non-BJP parties including AAP are
trying to come together in Manipur as left democratic front. There are already
too many alternatives and fragmented parties before the people who have
rejected the Congress and the BJP politics.

There must surely be more or
other reasons than those outlined above for Irom Sharmila and her party
candidates’ poor performance in Manipur. This is not the first time that
individuals, activists, members of issue based people’s movements who are
otherwise greatly respected have suffered defeat in an election. When such a
thing happens, it is often the case that whole people/voters are berated for
the loss of the good candidate. It is also seen that the standard reason given
for the defeat in an election is the use of money and muscle power. The same
forces the candidates were otherwise confident to fight with their good will.
It is time that those of us in people’s movements, public work and political struggles,
reflect where we are failing as a collective, think of the way ahead rather
than merely blame the voters for being collectively insensitive. Let us give the people of Manipur the benefit of
doubt.

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About Me

After having passed Masters in Social Work in the year 1987 Nandini Oza has worked as a social and political activist for over two decades in Non Government Organisations and people’s movements. After 2002, she worked as a lecturer in the Government College in Badwani, Madhya Pradesh teaching the post graduate course in social work for two years. However since 2004, her primary interest and focus has been on writing. Her writings are focussed on social and political analysis and commentary as well as on contemporary history. She remains a student of social and political change and her writing draws considerably from this as well as her earlier work as an activist. She writes both, fiction and non-fiction, believes that social media is an important medium in today’s times and uses it meaningfully. Nandini Oza's first book titled, "Whither Justice- Stories of Women in Prison", was published by Rupa in the year 2016. This was translated in the year 2012 and published in Marathi by Mehta Publishing house. Rupa recently made the book available in kindle edition. Oza's next book titled, 'Ladha Narmadecha', has been recently (July 2017) published by Rajhans Prakashan in Marathi.